Capítulo 179: Recognition, Regret and Rift
__________ POV Narration __________
Ken snickered as he stepped over the broken shards of the broken kitchen knife, he felt the fear in his parents.
They were afraid of him it seemed, his reputation preceded him even in such remote places. It couldn't be helped, he was quite literally a legend.
'Still, how come they never made the connection and realized I am their biological son?'
Ken's appearance was somewhat well documented by now. At the very least his age and blindness were both well-known.
"Well, I can't blame you for not recognizing me I guess..." Ken slowly headed to the cosy dining/living room, pulling one of the chairs and leisurely sitting down on it, crossing his legs whilst tilting his head.
The mother and father of the house were both frozen in fear, realizing that they had made a grave mistake.
They only moved when Ken gestured for them to sit down at the table.
He then reached for his mask and took it off, placing it gently on the table. His features were revealed, and both of the Shura Clan members winced a bit when they saw how scarred it was.
A twisted mound of flesh for everything above the nose, of course, he hadn't always been like that. His nose was only two small holes at first, but he decided to morph his body a bit, allowing it to look a bit more human.
Having an angled nose also had its own benefits at the end of the day.
"Does this face of mine look familiar to either of you?" Ken still held a smile on his face. His overall tone was gentle and casual.
In a sense, he had no way of being disappointed in his interactions with his biological parents, as he never even expected anything from them in the first place.
"Y-you..." The Mother was the first to react, covering her mouth with her hands whilst her eyes filled with tears.
The Father's eyes also widened in shock, recognition and finally... Fear.
"You're our son..." He seemed to be speaking more for himself than anything else.
But Ken nodded nonetheless, allowing his bangs to move, and his hair to cover the upper side of his face.
"I must say, I was not expecting to sense any tears... If you are afraid that I am here for revenge, then I must say that you are mistaken." Ken crossed his arms his calm and cordial smile remained plastered on his face.
But deep down, he looked down on the both of them.
"W-we tried to look for you! W-we had returned to that mountain!" The mother's voice broke through her cries, it seemed that they had ended up regretting their choice of leaving him for dead.
But they had failed as parents and human beings by making that choice in the first place. Any regret afterwards was a direct effect of the fact that they had done such a thing.
Although Ken could feel that his mother was suffering a bit, he couldn't bring himself to even feel pity for her.
"We were young and foolish back then... We tried to- No, for now, I need to at least say so-"
"Don't bother. I didn't come here to hear a meaningless apology." Ken interrupted his father, ignoring his mother's cries whilst leaning into his chair.
Hearing his disinterested voice, his mother's cries seemed to resound a bit harder, Ken could almost feel her heart breaking inside.
But at the same time. His mind still clearly remembered it.
It wasn't like he was a regular newborn, he had clear memories of every moment since he had gained consciousness in that world.
Even without eyes, in his confused state at that time, he felt the lack of sympathy that his parents had for him when they left him for dead on that cold mountain.
His mind remembered how his newborn body fought against the biting cold for what felt like an eternity, almost dying before being found by the people who actually deserved to be called his parents.
So, even when facing their clear and honest regret, Ken held no sympathy in his heart for them. Seeing them like that only brought a taste of vomit on his tongue.
'I was curious about how I'd react to them, to see how my 'human' side would react... But it seems that it was a bit of a waste of time.'
In his monstrous heart, he only had a place for a few people, and all of the spots were filled by the Dark Brotherhood, his dear friends and his actual parents.
"I will be honest, I did come here to try and find out a bit more about my biological family...
Mostly out of curiosity. But my main purpose is to learn more about my clan and bloodline."
The Mother and Father duo seemed to deflate when hearing that, almost as if they had been hoping for a full-on reunion.
'Too bad, you don't get to shake hands after burning bridges with someone...'
"Dad, Mom, what's happening?! Mom, why are you crying?!?" Hiroshi's voice sounded out form behind the parents, as he climbed down the flight of stairs and stared at everyone in shock.
His eyes narrowed dangerously as he gave Ken a hostile look.
"So this must be my twin brother, huh..." Ken smiled, his finger tapping on the table as he turned his head back to his parents.
"Y-yes. Hiroshi, come here! Take a seat." The Mother immediately urged her son to sit down beside her.
In her heart, there was still some hope for Ken to fell some sort of connection to his twin. After all the child was faultless...
'Maybe if they get along... Then we'd still have a chance to repent properly.' Her thought process was rather depressing, but it couldn't be helped.
"My brother? B-but wasn't I an only son?" Hiroshi's eyes immediately locked back on Ken, this time giving him a confused look, some hostility still lingering.
"Oh? You never told him... I guess he is too young anyway.
I am undoubtedly your twin brother, Hiroshi was it?" Ken extended his hand towards his twin, keeping things cordial, but not too close.
He didn't blame his twin for the actions of his parents, but that didn't mean he was looking for a brother.
Still, that small action was enough to give a shimmer of hope to the Father and Mother duo, who watched their sons shake hands, meeting for the first time.
"My name is Ken... My full name is Kyoshi Ken, as given by the parents who raised me." The Blind Swordsman had not said his full name in a very long time, but he still remembered it, it had been ingrained in his heart after all.
Hiroshi's eyes widened.
"So you were raised by someone else?" He was young, and not quite knowledgeable about the outside world or the way it worked.
Such innocence and naivety were somewhat endearing to Ken, but he didn't react much, merely humming when hearing the question.
"Indeed, I was raised by a rather nice group of deserting Samurai, it was a nice twist of fate," Ken spoke fondly of his family, remembering them once again, not that he had ever forgotten about them in the first place.
"But how did they adopt you? And why wasn't I ever told about this." Hiroshi gave his parents a confused look to which both mother and father looked away in shame.
"I believe that's a story that your parents should tell you. But let's just say that without the family that raised me, I wouldn't be here right now."
That statement only managed to aggravate Hiroshi's curiosity. He immediately turned to his parents once more, this time demanding an explanation.
And he got exactly that...
"W-well.. At birth, Ken, your twin brother was severely malformed. We didn't think we could raise him, nor did we think he could make it... So we left him near his place of birth." The father was the one to start explaining things, and the mother looked too ashamed even to open her mouth.
"It should be mentioned that the place of birth was the middle of a deserted mountain, in the middle of winter in the Land of Iron, where winter is a lot colder than in most other places..."
Ken made sure to add a few more details to the explanation. After all, if they decided to tell him some parts of the story, he at least deserved to know the whole picture.
And it seemed that despite his nativity and innocence, Hiroshi knew enough about the world to understand exactly what Ken meant...
His parents hadn't left his deformed twin for adoption... They left him to die in the middle of nowhere.
He was left speechless by that realization, he seemed to barely be able to wrap his head around it. But when he finally did, he turned his head back to his parents, hoping that one of them would refute it... But no such thing happened.
They were too ashamed to even lie at that point.
Ken could feel it, the disgust wellin up within his twin's mind as he looked at his parents. But that disgust was a lot more tempered than Ken's own feelings.
After all, no matter how much his opinion of them was lowered due to this matter, he was still their son. He had been raised by them for his entire life.
Still, Ken didn't need to be a psychologist to realise that a rift had been formed in that small family...
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Hope you liked the chapter!
Missed an upload since I was travelling back home. Stayed up all night and got here in the morning only to pass out for the rest of the daylight
Managed to get here safely at least and got to writing, anyway, hope you have a great day
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